“Unified Around What?” from 8/7/11

“Idolatry In Worship” from 4/3/11

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Using GroupMe for Ministry

Communication is vital to any ministerial endeavor. But in most cases, it is the most difficult to maintain. How do you keep everyone in the loop?

There are more applications related to communication today than there have ever been, and that is part of the problem. Either these apps don’t talk to each other, or their usage is not comprehensive enough. Ministries have to choose how best to communicate.

SMS is, by far, the most universal available method of communicating. Most people have a cell phone, even if they do not have a computer for email. Other countries have even gone to SMS for bill payment, since, apart from stealing someone’s phone, a text from a particular number can’t easily be counterfeit (but that’s a topic for another post).

This past summer, my church began using GroupMe to keep our volunteers that work with our summer VBS connected, and it worked very well for us. In fact, it worked so well that we have implemented it to connect the ministerial staff.

GroupMe has apps available for iOS and Android, in addition to the web. If someone does not have a smart phone, they can still participate solely using SMS.

I like the fact that there is little investment in the technology. It is free. It does not require an app for access. You can add images to your groups, but you don’t have to do so. The first time you get a text from a group, add that group’s number to your address book and you are good to go.

There are other features, like conference calling, that we haven’t used, so I can’t speak to those. But we certainly may in the future.